Penny:...and then I took him shoe shopping and tried on nothing but knee-high black leather fuck-me boots with a miniskirt on!
Valentine: What did he do?
Penny: NOTHING! He just said they all looked nice and fetched/carried boxes for me.


Valentine: You might just be trying too hard. You've only been going out around a month.


Penny: I KNOW! But he's being a perfect gentleman and I can't take it! I want to whack him over the head with a club and drag him back to my bedroom!
Valentine: That's probaby not a good idea.


Ash: Valentine, have you seen Nightshade? She's never been gone this long before. I'm worried she's up to something crazy after that whole Beressa thing.


Valentine: No.
Penny: Nice Goggles. What are you going to do with those, take a ride on one of those new-fangled 'motor vehicles'?


Ash: Well, I could, but if I did then I wouldn't be able to do that experiment with the gamma rays your government is paying me so much for.


Valentine: But she has been around. My halloween costume went missing a few days after halloween, and she's the only one who steals my clothes.


Ash: Hmm... all right. Well if you see her or any sign of her let me know, ok? I'll be in the lab.

Elsewhere:

Frankie: Maybe this is it...


Frankie: *sigh* Just because I won't build it they make me be the one who has to steal it. Really, if this isn't it, then it's no fault of mine. Not like scientists label their inventions.


Ash: Hello.
Frankie: !

Frankie: Er, hello there.


Ash: What are you doing with that?
Frankie: With what?
Ash: With my cold-fusion generator behind your back.


Frankie: At this size? I thought it was a shrink-ray.


Ash: Sure you did. You were after the novelty invention and not the trillion-dollar world-changing one.


Frankie: No, really. I already made one of those. Quite a bit smaller. Battery-sized, actually. See? I even put it down.
Ash: Battery sized? Why would you need one that small?
Frankie: Vibrators. What else? The damn things always die at the worst moment. Really, it wasn't even my idea to come here. It's just that they wanted a shrink-ray, and I didn't see the point of making one.


Ash: 'They', huh?


Frankie: Nightshade's henchmen. They want to shrink the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building. I work for her too, but I'm a lover, not a fighter. I just make things.


Ash: I see. Well... I can't just give you the shrink ray. Why don't you come upstairs? That outfit looks a little cold.

Meanwhile:

Pink: AAA! Mon Dieu, zis is TOTALLY UNACCEPTIBLE!

 


Sometime Later:
Frankie:...and then my servants zapped me with a death-ray, only it sent my consciousness into my dimensional twin across space and even time itself. One minute I was a sweet transvestite, another I was sitting in a think-tank in Washington DC wearing a pocket protector and orthopedic shoes. I fixed myself up and broke in my new body with some world travel, you know, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Bangkok, the Phillipines... but the square's money started to run out so I started looking for a job and found Ms. Moon's advertisement.


Ash: Fascinating. So your consciousness was transferred? What else do you know about inter-dimensional travel?


Frankie: Nothing, I'm afraid. No point in going back, because my body there is dead. That's all we thought the death-rays did, of course, thus the 'death' part. I've been looking for my Rocky's twin. I saw him once...


Ash: Well I've been interested in inter-dimensional transfer of matter and consciousness for some time. I tell you what, if you help me research it, I'll lend you my shrink-ray.


Frankie: Splendid! You really are far more attractive and intelligent than Nightshade said, and not nearly as frightening.


Ash: Thanks. It's a deal then?
Frankie: Of course. I'll be happy to come by and... play. Maybe I'll even show you my fusion generator next time.
Ash: I'll look forward to it.


Commentary:
The title of this chapter refers to the long running MAD magazine Spy vs Spy cartoon. One spy is dressed all in black, and one spy is dressed all in white. Ash is all in white, and Frankie is all in black.

Cold fusion was one of the holy grails of physics. Essentially, nuclear power without all the bad by-products. It was considered impossible for a while, but now is seeming more like a probability, and even a workable fact.

When you come back to Frankie and Ash, they have changed locations and wardrobe. Frankie is first seen wearing a leather Jacket. In the movie, there is one scene where Frankie wears a leather jacket, and that's after he seduces Brad (the hero). In the next picture, you see Ash, who is wearing lingerie, and her hair is a bit mussed. A couple of pictures later, the scene pulls back slightly and you see the suit Ash had been wearing in pieces on the ground. Do I need to spell it out?

All the places Frankie mentions in his 'world travels' are prostitution/sex capitols of the world. I probably should have added New Orleans, but another time.

The cut to with Pink: in the previous pic-fic, the wall on the far side is blue. Solid blue. After Roxy and Vertigo come along and start their argument with Pink, the wall has been painted with a red-and-white Union Jack (British flag) over the solid blue wall.